This invention relates to sunblinds and in particular to sunblinds for absorbing or reflecting sunlight incident on the windows of a vehicle.
On a sunny day, the temperature inside a vehicle can rise to uncomfortable and even dangerous levels. Sunlight, which can be very intense during the summer months, passes through the windows of the vehicle and heats the air inside the vehicle until an equilibrium temperature is reached. The equilibrium temperature can be very high because the air inside a vehicle is predominantly trapped within the vehicle, and therefore heat transfer to the atmosphere surrounding the vehicle is low. Such a high temperature inside a vehicle can be highly uncomfortable for adults and potentially dangerous, or even deadly, for pets and small children.
One method of reducing the equilibrium temperature inside a vehicle on a sunny day is to use sunblinds to absorb or reflect sunlight incident on the windows of a vehicle. The less sunlight reaching the interior of the vehicle, the lower the equilibrium temperature will be inside the vehicle. Sunblinds are also used simply to shade the occupants of the vehicle, particularly young children, from direct sunlight.
Conventionally, a sunblind comprises a panel of completely opaque or semi-transparent fabric and means for fixing the fabric panel to an interior surface of the vehicle such that the fabric panel either partially or completely occludes the window to sunlight. A variety of different types of fixing means are used for conventional sunblinds. One such type of fixing means is the use of a suction pad at each corner of the fabric panel to fix the panel to the interior surface of a window. Another form of sunblind for vehicles includes a roller blind mechanism that is fixed to an upper edge of the window frame, for example.
However, conventional sunblinds for vehicles suffer from numerous problems. In particular, conventional sunblinds are often awkward and time consuming to position over a window, and then fix to an interior surface of the vehicle, so as to occlude at least part of the window to sunlight. In addition, many conventional sunblinds are only available in a limited number of different configurations, which each have a standard shape and standard dimensions, that are not suitable for use with certain windows in many makes and models of vehicles. Furthermore, where the sunblind does not occlude the whole of the window, it may be ineffective in shading the occupants of the vehicle from the sun. For instance, the sunblind may be positioned to provide effective shade prior to the start of a journey, but a change in direction of the vehicle will alter the angle of incidence of the sunlight. This may necessitate repeated adjustment of the position of the sunblind, which is clearly undesirable and inconvenient.